Shut Down the Marketplace GC purchase option!

[Pwnder]

There are 3 very good reasons why this feature should be removed to help improve our current economy.
1. It is a gold generator
2. It has the potential to negate any taxes from gold only purchases
3. It has the potential to affect item average buy prices

Some may argue that it is a great secondary option to buying things in the MP when they can't be bought for gold. Yet, high prices are the initial drive that would make a user choose this option. We want to end the cycle of rising prices through eliminating gold generating RIGs and certain features, such as this one.

#1 It is a gold generator

Quote:

Take a look at what new gold can be generated into the economy if 1, 10, and 100 GC users purchased from the MP this way. The use of a Token is only an example

1 Buyer Each

10 Buyers Each

100 Buyers Each

Please keep in mind that these totals are before 5% tax is removed.
Truthfully, it generates 47.5M gold for each 1GC.

How is it a gold generator? Some may not understand so we can answer with a quick Q&A

Does the seller get GC when listing with this option?
No
What does the seller get when their listing is bought with GC?
They get the gold in the amount they listed it for
Where does the gold come from?
It is generated from the system in exchange for the GC purchase

#2 The potential to negate taxes from gold only purchases

Quote:

Now that the graph works again, we can estimate using around 400T as the daily average. That means 5% of taxes from that would be 20T removed from the economy daily. However, that would also suggest that if 5% of Marketplace total sales were purchases via GC , generating 20T new gold, then it will delete the tax taken from gold only purchases.



It only takes 5% of total marketplace value to be GC purchases to ruin everything!!
In other words!
400,000 purchases for 1GC =20T
40,000 purchases for 10GC =20T
4,000 purchases for 100GC =20T
800 purchases for 500GC =20T
267 purchases for 1499GC =20T
Some of these numbers are realistic

While gold generators keep being sold on top of this mess, the marketplace tax is having zero effect on our economy this way.

The GC purchase option is so potent!

Look at what 5% is!!



This little bit completely erases any MP taxes that the other 95% of us have paid!

#3 Can affect average buy price on items

Quote:

Using this actual listing as an example:

You can see that it is possible to purchase 445 Heart Charms for 300GC

This, of course, would generate the seller 14.25B in new gold. But you can also see that the individual price for the charms listed would be 33M Gold each. That is 3X (three times) the actual average buy price of a single charm.

With enough purchases like this the average buy price of a charm would naturally rise. This scenario could happen to any item in the marketplace.


Here you can see how 1 GC could affect the ABP
Although you may think that someone would never purchase something like this, you would be proven wrong quite quickly to be honest...


It is a scenario like this that prompts users to buy via GC instead of gold in some cases, repeating the cycle. Other cases would be users exploiting this feature to increase average buy prices intentionally for their own gain.
Exploitation is not always the culprit in this situation, but rather negligence in realizing what authorizing the GC purchase option does when listing items.

This box is "checked" by default when going to list an item for sale.
Negligence in un-ticking that little box is all it takes.

For starters, I would like to see the little box "unchecked" by default to avoid the unintentional exploitation to artificially inflate items in the MP. Ideally, removing it from the Marketplace all together would have the best effect on our gold economy.
Gold Generators are no longer an issue, praise Lanzer, however we still have Lake Kindred generating large amounts of gold. There is no need to attack this feature it is one of the games that users come here to enjoy, which is a vital part of Gaia's life. I don't believe we need much adjustment to any of the playable gold generators, rather just highly active gold sinks and a major adjustment to this GC purchase option gold generator.

[H0peh]

Tbh I honestly thought no one even used that feature, since its cash to gold valuing is just...a mess.

The only time i was ever like "Oh thats a good idea" was when items weren't going to get re-released. But now since pretty much everything on the site has and will be re-released sooner or later, whats the point?

It should be removed, its just taking up space.


MP needs to be focused on UPDATING again. Idk what is up with the ABP not updating every night anymore....it feels so neglected.

[Lanzer]

Thanks for sharing your detailed thoughts and suggestions. Personally I was never into the idea of purchasing gold witih GCash for it will only cause inflation in the long run.

There will be changes made in the future. But for now our new team is starting off from zero, and any changes to revenue related items are off-limits until we reach a point where we are stable and can pay for rent/utilities plus everyone's paycheck. sweatdrop That's also why a big change to tackle hyper-inflation will also take time. Not only because it's a huge project, but also because we need to be ready to take a potential hit in revenue, and stay in business after that. eek

[Neshira Namea Returns]

lanzer

Thanks for sharing your detailed thoughts and suggestions. Personally I was never into the idea of purchasing gold witih GCash for it will only cause inflation in the long run.

There will be changes made in the future. But for now our new team is starting off from zero, and any changes to revenue related items are off-limits until we reach a point where we are stable and can pay for rent/utilities plus everyone's paycheck. sweatdrop That's also why a big change to tackle hyper-inflation will also take time. Not only because it's a huge project, but also because we need to be ready to take a potential hit in revenue, and stay in business after that. eek

We believe in you Lanzer. I think you guys can fix the inflation and actually see more revenue. So many of us users swore off buying Gaia Cash as a form of protest until things were fixed. Seeing you take that next big step will absolutely bring back customers. Seeing you back has even pushed me to buy a little bit of cash here and there.

[marudynes]

Mmmmmm if the MP is back to normal again, I'll start buying things with gold again. I only started purchasing things with GC because there are items waaaayyy to out of my price range.

As an artist, I have an art shop but because of IRL things like my job, my health, etc. it's hard to keep up with what's going on in the MP.

[Tiana Luscinia]

I'm glad there are plans to fix these issues. I hate that the box for allowing GC purchases is ticked on by default when applicable. I've had to go back and cancel listings because I clicked everything too fast and forgot to disable that option. sweatdrop

All this option does is generate gold. The only thing I'd like to see stay is the GC option for gold shops. Mainly because it is useful for tiers when you need a couple more GC and there's nothing left that you can buy. If anything at least let us keep the pancakes but make pancakes purchasable in bulk.

[loraleania]

Neshira Namea Returns

We believe in you Lanzer. I think you guys can fix the inflation and actually see more revenue. So many of us users swore off buying Gaia Cash as a form of protest until things were fixed. Seeing you take that next big step will absolutely bring back customers. Seeing you back has even pushed me to buy a little bit of cash here and there.

This exactly.

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

I (somewhat reluctantly) admit that I use GC in the marketplace once in a while, and I almost never uncheck the box when I list things. I'm lazy and always want to get my stuff listed as quickly as possible. I would, however, very much like to see it changed so that the GC option is unchecked by default, and eventually I'd also like to see the option removed from the marketplace entirely. I know that it's not great for me or anyone else to use GC on the marketplace at all, it's just such a temptation sometimes, e.g., when I have 20 billion gold and 300 GC and I want to buy a "cheap" item that costs 10 or 15 billion. I'd rather lose 3 bucks on something "cheap" than most or all of my gold. Sometimes it's also attractive to buy things that only cost a few pennies in GC (like fish or ink for my Alchemy quests), so I can save my gold for items I want or to donate in my guilds.

I'm not sure how much GC typically gets spent in the marketplace, but I understand if it's important for site revenue to keep the option around for a while, as we restabilize. But changing it so that it's opt-in rather than opt-out when we list stuff on the market would maybe be a good first step?

I'd agree with keeping the GC option in gold shops, if for no other reason than what Tiana Luscinia said about the tiers. But otherwise, buying the "free" currency with cash is a model that seems to work for a lot of mobile games, but it's not really transferable to a site where we have a user-to-user marketplace and trading system. Plus, those types of mobile games tend to make it infuriatingly hard to earn a decent amount of free currency, and they also tend to lose popularity over several months to a few years, then they're scrapped and the company makes a new game to milk until everyone's attention spans give out. That kind of model won't work the same for a community-based website like this one.

[Pwnder]

I do not believe that users buy GC to intentionally spend it on items the in MP. A better deal is through the Cash Shops at all times. It is just one of those options available that do not have good side effects when used thousands of times in small amounts. With any luck, much less than 5% of marketplace sales are through the GC option.
Is that possible? We don't and won't know the true numbers. The fact remains that even if that number is half 2.5% it would still negate half of the daily average sunk from taxes, still not good.
Our gold sinks should not be blocked by any means, we need them to work emo

lanzer

Thanks for sharing your detailed thoughts and suggestions. Personally I was never into the idea of purchasing gold witih GCash for it will only cause inflation in the long run.

There will be changes made in the future. But for now our new team is starting off from zero, and any changes to revenue related items are off-limits until we reach a point where we are stable and can pay for rent/utilities plus everyone's paycheck. sweatdrop That's also why a big change to tackle hyper-inflation will also take time. Not only because it's a huge project, but also because we need to be ready to take a potential hit in revenue, and stay in business after that. eek

Thanks to you for taking the time to read and respond heart

With promises that corrections to Gaia issues are to come, I have seen more and more users, who once swore off buying GC, begin to open their wallets again. I certainly would not like to see these new or returning buyers start spending their GC in a feature that doesn't help our current situation as it is. Which is why I created this thread, to educate and hopefully motivate

Previous management would have achieved better numbers in sales if they had not taken such drastic and impersonal moves, our community wasn't accustomed to it or ready for it. By this time we have become accustomed to drastic changes, so, many of us are ready to accept the changes in order to put our site and community back together. Many of us already understand why the changes need to be made as well. You are the man with the plan and I don't doubt that you know what is best. I look forward to changes heart

There are so many questions users are asking , and you all have gone above and beyond to take the time and answer some of them. Some of your responses have been missed by the community, and believe me, we are hanging on to every word you have to say, maybe Cindy Donovinh can provide us with a one on one interview with you all? emotion_dowant

[Pwnder]

I know what Lanzer said but, people oughta know about this sweatdrop

[Coturnix]

I agree with this suggestion. I think I accidentally used my GC instead of gold when I pressed the wrong Buy Now button. Ended up spending ~200 GC unintentionally as I was on mobile and did not notice..

Until this feature is removed I won't be purchasing large amounts of GC.

[Captain Spitfire]

Huh. That's a hell of a breakdown. Good effort.

[Berryl]

I can only agree, please take it down!

[aquito]

thank you for making this thread. I personally don't like it since I cannot get gcash from mp coz i know they turned it into gold. :T and it should be shut down for good.

[Demonic Voyakiloid]

I agree immensely, I figured this would add to the inflation considering it just generated more gold into the system.